She went to Greece in 1896, after she got her degree in Classics (Smith College), to study at the American School of Archaeology. While there, she got the Queen of Greece to help her become a nursing volunteer in the first Greco-Turkish war.

…as you do!

That was before she started running her own excavations on Crete 1900-1905. Harriet Boyd Hawes was the director of the team of men and women archaeologists (including trowelblazers Edith Hall and Blanche Wheeler) that uncovered Gournia, an entire Minoan town!

…yeah, no biggy

Oh, and then there was more war-zone nursing and the whole championing women’s suffrage in later life.